Blunt: No winners in federal budget dispute

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt said Thursday there were no winners in a dispute that led to the 16-day partial shutdown of the federal government.

Blunt was the lone Republican in Missouri’s congressional delegation to vote Wednesday for compromise legislation ending the shutdown and avoiding a debt default.

He said the dispute damaged the public’s confidence in the government and that he hopes it will be a “shock therapy.” He said the only reason the Democrats do not look terrible is that the Republicans look worse.

“It’s clear that the government spends too much, it borrows too much,” Blunt said. “Those really have to be the two main targets after yesterday’s vote, and it’s time we got back to the business of debating priorities and setting those priorities and having some process that works.”

Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill and Missouri’s two House Democrats voted for the legislation. All six Missouri Republicans in the House voted against it.

U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler said the compromise did not relieve affects from the federal health care law or address the national debt.

“I could not in good faith support a plan that continues to hurt Americans through its unfair health insurance mandates and raises America’s credit card limit while failing to relieve future generations of our enormous burden of debt,” she said.